World News - Visions of victim inspire murder accusation Over 5 years after man enters politics solely to accuse, suspect is arrested

More than five years ago, Rod Spraggins made a sensational charge at a candidate forum, publicly accusing a political opponent of murder with nothing to back up the allegation except, it turns out, a vision.Now police say Spraggins was right.Barry Waites, Spraggins' opponent in the 2000 race for Lanett City Council, was arrested this week on murder charges in the 1998 slaying of his wife, who was found dead in their split-level home in this sleepy town of 8,000 along the Georgia line. In 2000, Spraggins, a bail bondsman, stunned a crowd of 100 when he accused Waites of killing his wife and dared the man to sue him for slander if he was wrong. Waites was not at the forum, never responded publicly to the accusation and never sued.In an otherworldly turn to the saga Friday, Spraggins disclosed that he never had any evidence to make the accusation and that it was based entirely on the victim's appearing to him in a series of dreams.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Bruce Jackson walked into court Friday with a swagger, 15 inches taller and nearly 100 pounds heavier than the 45-pound teenager found foraging through a trash can for food less than two and a half years ago. With anger in his still high-pitched voice, the 21-year-old took the stand to confront the woman he and his three adoptive brothers say went for years denying them not just food, but the chance to grow up like normal kids. “You were mean to me for my whole life,” Jackson told his adoptive mother, Vanessa Jackson, before she was sentenced to seven years in prison for child endangerment. “You took my childhood. I’m so disappointed I will never get that back.” It was the first time Bruce Jackson and his younger brothers had appeared in public since their ordeal became national news in October 2003. All four are thin, but nothing like the gaunt figures investigators found after a neighbor spotted Bruce rummaging through the garbage. ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11280990/from/RSS/

An Italian judge has dismissed an atheist's petition that a small-town priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed, both sides said on Friday. Luigi Cascioli, a 72-year-old retired agronomist, had accused the Rev. Enrico Righi of violating two laws with the assertion, which he called a deceptive fable propagated by the Roman Catholic Church. "The Rev. Righi is very satisfied and moved," Righi's attorney, Severo Bruno, said. "He is an old, small-town parish priest who never would have thought he'd be in the spotlight for something like this." Cascioli, a former schoolmate of Righi's, said he had not expected the case to succeed in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy. "This is not surprising but it doesn't mean it all ends here," he said, adding that he's considering taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights. "This is an important case and it deserves to go ahead," he said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1603218&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

At least eight Afghan soldiers have been killed and several wounded by two roadside bombs in Kunar province, according to officials. Two soldiers were killed by the first blast and a second device went off as troops rushed to the scene. "The situation is very bad. We've come under attack throughout the night," regional deputy police chief Mohammed Hasan told the Associated Press. The mountainous Kunar province lies on the eastern border with Pakistan. US forces targeted insurgents in Kunar last year and 16 American soldiers died in June when their helicopter was shot down over the province. Kunar is a stronghold of renegade former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose followers are believed to be working with Taleban and al-Qaeda militants. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4699616.stm

It might have been unthinkable only a few years ago, but parity between the U.S. and Canadian dollars some day is not that much of a long shot any more.Even though the Canadian dollar has appreciated by almost 50 percent against the greenback over the last three years, analysts say buoyant global commodity prices, Canada's relatively favorable economic fundamentals and prospects of rising interest rates suggest there's room for even more upside.Further gains of only around 15 percent from current levels would put the U.S. dollar at C$1.00 for the first time ever."We will get there," said David Durrant, chief strategist at Julius Baer Investment Management, LLC, in New York."We would think that's in the cards. Will it be in six, 12, 18 or 24 months? The timeframe's all that's missing ... (but) that's where we're going," he said....http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-02-09T203345Z_01_N09241163_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MARKETS-FOREX-CANADA-COL.XML&archived=False

Outraged intelligence professionals say President George W. Bush is "cheapening" and "politicizing" their work with claims the United States foiled a planned terrorist attack against Los Angeles in 2002."The President has cheapened the entire intelligence community by dragging us into his fantasy world," says a longtime field operative of the Central Intelligence Agency. "He is basing this absurd claim on the same discredited informant who told us Al Qaeda would attack selected financial institutions in New York and Washington."Within hours of the President’s speech Thursday claiming his administration had prevented a major attack, sources who said they were current and retired intelligence pros from the CIA, NSA, FBI and military contacted Capitol Hill Blue with angry comments disputing the President’s remarks.“He’s full of shit,” said one sharply-worded email....http://www.capitolhillblue.com/blog/2006/02/intel_pros_say_bush_is_lying_a.html